Page:The Production of Security.pdf/13

12 defense and protection company, rather than allowing free competition.

It is instructive to note the storm of contention that Molinari's article and his Soirées brought about in the laissez-faire stalwarts of French economics. A meeting of the Societe d'Economie Politique in 1849 was devoted to Molinari's daring new book, the Soirées. Charles Coquelin opined that justice needs a "supreme authority," and that no competition in any area can exist without the supreme authority of the State. In a similarly unsupported and a priori fulmination, Frédéric Bastiat declared that justice and security can only be guaranteed by force, and that force can only be the attribute of a "supreme power," the State. Neither commentator bothered to engage in a critique of Molinari's arguments.

Only Charles Dunoyer did so, complaining that Molinari had been carried away by the "illusions of logic," and maintaining that "competition between governmental